Personal information manager (PIM) software applications are computer programs that allow a user to maintain and organize various types of personal information and which provide electronic mail (email) functionality. PIM software applications (or simply “PIM applications”) typically maintain personal information in distinct information categories. The information categories that are maintained usually include an email message inbox, an email message outbox, a set of previously transmitted email messages or “sent items”, an address book containing contact information, a scheduling calendar (or i.e. a set of appointments, notes, and a list of tasks to be completed). PIM applications may be designed for execution by a wireless communication device.
In certain personal information management (PIM) applications, contact information about a user's contacts may be provided to the user via a user dashboard user interface. It is often the case that information about a particular contact, whether an individual or a company, can and often does come from many sources, including social network sites that have a vast amount of contact information about people and companies. It would be useful to provide a way to effectively, selectively and easily manage the presentation of contact information from widely disparate sources to users of such applications.